Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Survival Of The Fittest?

NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof just wrote the fascinating story of Scott Harrison, a fundraiser and skillful marketer who, as Kristof puts its, is making clean water sexy. Some important fundraising lessons here. Scott is a 33-year-old ex-nightclub promoter who "got religion" while vacationing in South America, then deepened his epiphany by doing a volunteer […]

Learn More July 13, 2009

Mr. Wizard Would Be Proud

At the risk of signaling my age, I’m pleased to report that all those Saturday mornings of watching Mr. Wizard on black & white TV paid off. I just scored 100% on Pew Research Center’s science quiz. Mr. Wizard would be proud! You can take the quiz here. Of greater significance, Pew has just released […]

Learn More July 10, 2009

Modeling Yields Better Returns

Here’s an article from Fundraising Success that I set aside awhile back to reflect upon. I’m glad I did. Written by fundraising consultants Tiffany Neill and Lynn Mehaffy, it’s a useful little gem … kind of a "nuts & bolts" Modeling 101 for fundraisers. I’m especially intrigued by their discussion of milking more insight from […]

Learn More July 9, 2009

Online Fundraising Up Over 2008?

Steve MacLaughlin of Blackbaud shares results from his firm’s clients for the first half of 2009. From a group of 1,274 clients, online giving is up 22% for the first six months of 2009 over the same period in 2008. Average online gift is currently running at $124.17. That’s great. But what do you mean […]

Learn More July 8, 2009

Good News For Gloomy Times

Half way through the year, like the mythical Janus, capable of viewing the past and future at the same time, I’m leafing through a pile of good stuff I should have passed on to Agitator readers, but somehow didn’t. Shame on me. BUT … it’s not to late to put this great information to work […]

Learn More July 7, 2009

Jeff Brooks To Charity Navigator: Shut Up!

In this recent post, Merkle creative director and blogger Jeff Brooks takes on Charity Navigator for whining about "junk mail" and for buying into the "myth that fundraising is a form of harassment." Right on Jeff! And he doesn’t just complain. He gives four very sound bits of advice for how you should deal with […]

Learn More July 6, 2009